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I haven’t forgotten this blog, I’ve just had very little time. However now I have lots of things I want to write about so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to keep up with this a bit more!

I only have one main finished project, and that’s the cardigan from NaKnitMo. I love it, it’s warm and cosy and I’ve basically been using it as a coat. The pattern is Velvet Morning and I used Wendy Traditional Aran (which I believe is British). Sorry about the bad picture quality.

I didn’t knit much in December, just started a pair of thick socks from the leftovers of my cardigan. I’ve almost finished them now, and once I have it’s time to get back into proper knitting again.

In December, Nick from UdellGames and I got engaged. I’m planning to knit a shawl for me, and shawls for my bridesmaids. The pattern I picked for my shawl is Sheherazadeshetla and I’m using Jamieson & Smith’s Shetland Supreme 1ply, which has 1600m per 100g. It’s really thin, but the small bit I’ve knitted so far is coming out really well. It was important to me to use British wool, and I wanted a natural but pure white, and this was the closest I could find.

Finally, as a birthday present for me, and an engagement present for the both of us, Nick and I bought a Kenwood Chef Titanium. So far we’ve made ice cream, short crust pastry, soda bread and some bread using ground almonds instead of flour, and have been impressed by it all. We only got it on Tuesday. Now that I’m used to it, I plan on making up some of my own recipes, so look out for them in the future.

In 2015 I have some big plans. Not only am I knitting my wedding shawl and bridesmaids’ shawls, I’m also going to try and knit a pair of socks per month (I managed 11 1/2 pairs of socks last year!), plus I want to knit at least one cardigan, a scarf/shawl or two for me and probably various other small things. I’m also going to finish sewing my big fancy project bag, and learn how to sew clothes properly. That should give me plenty of material to post at least once a week for the foreseeable future. Oh, and we also plan on getting a dog, as soon as we can find one that’s suitable.

In December my working hours got doubled. This has made me value my free time a bit more though so I’m actually managing to get more done than before.

So, that’s the plan, let’s see if I can actually stick to it this time!

Sorry it’s been a bit quiet at Crafterways over Christmas and New Year. I hope everyone has had a lovely break.

Works in Progress

I’ve got a few things on the go that I plan on completing in the not too distant future.

The first is my Rough Weather socks from Think Outside the Sox. I thought they were suitable considering the weather we’ve been having lately! I finished the first one over Christmas and want to get the second done fairly soon. I’m using Regia sock yarn for a change. I’ve had it in my stash for a while and it’s the perfect colour for these socks.

The second, my Thermal, hasn’t really grown much. I took it with me to knit over Christmas but didn’t take any spare yarn. This would have been fine had one ball not decided to be thinner than the other, so I had to stop and wait until I could swap it out for a real one. Not sure why that happened, but it was cheap yarn so that might explain it.

The third, and final for non-hibernating projects, is my Demalangeni Shawl. I’ve had this yarn for a while, and I finally found the perfect shawl for it. It’s Araucania Ranco which I love, and I’m hoping it turns out well. It looks it so far!

Christmas

For Christmas, I got a ball winder and swift. I’ve wanted these for a while. I immediately set about using them on my new Exmoor Sock Yarn as it’s the only thing I had.

When I got back to my stash, I then also wound some yarn that I had previously hand wound. I love the neat cakes the ball winder creates, and they’re so much easier to knit from than hand wound balls.

For Christmas I also received a little tripod, so hopefully that will improve the quality of my photos here considerably!

Coming Up

This year I am setting several crafty challenges for myself. The first is to knit a pair of socks every month. A group on Ravelry has set a theme (flora) and you have to find and knit patterns that in some way relate to a particular flower. It’ll be quite a challenge, but hopefully by the end of it I’ll (and various other people) will end up with some more lovely hand knit socks.

With some of my Christmas money I bought this book on dressmaking and this is where my second challenge comes in. For several years I have attempted to teach myself, with no help from books or anything, how to make clothes. I can make simple skirts, but that’s about it. So I decided it was about time I learned how to do it properly. Hopefully in the not too distant future you’ll see works in progress and finished objects not only from knitting, but also sewing!

My final challenge is to finish things! I’m really bad at finishing anything that isn’t socks or a shawl, so my challenge is to not start too many things. I need to at least finish my Zora cardigan, and not let myself start a new one until Thermal is complete. That is going to be quite difficult seeing as I found this for half price in the John Lewis sale.

It’s Wendy Roam in a lovely blue colour. I’m going to use it doubled so whichever cardigan I choose to make from it doesn’t take forever.

Have you set yourself any crafty challenges for the year? I’d love to hear about them!

Whether you’re a knitter, crocheter, papercrafter, sewer, or any other type of crafter, there comes a time when you lose all inspiration to finish anything. You start a project with good intentions. Hours and hours of work later and you get another idea, or see something new you want to try. You keep working on your project thinking ‘I’ll finish soon…’ and then that idea just kind of grabs you, and you have to start it. Now you have another project to finish and even less motivation to do the others.

Most of the time this happens to me with knitting, probably because it takes so long. For example, my current knitting (and one crochet) projects:

Zora cardigan (from Knitty) – I’ve been knitting this since November 12th 2012. Last night I finally finished the sleeves and did some sewing in of ends. However, because I had to alternate between six skeins (yes, I had to, they were all so different in shade as they were hand dyed) I have so much sewing in of ends to do that it’s quite ridiculous. I mean, this is a sleeve. I tried weaving in some as I went but it wasn’t as secure. Maybe there’s a technique I’m missing. I’ve done the back and one and a half sides. That could take some time.

Socks – These are a potential present so I won’t say much, but I keep making mistakes. I took them out of hibernation only a couple of days ago, and now they’re back in it again as I realised I was missing some of the pattern round the leg. And they’re knitted toe up. They’re not even difficult!

Serpentine scarf – I’ve not been knitting this for so long (started July 15th) but it’s lace and very slow going. It’s going to be amazing once it’s done though!

Big stripy blanket – It’s just SO repetitive

Plain black socks – Again, very repetitive – I might just give up. I started them when on a tour with band to Paris, and I’ve still only just finished the toe.

Granny square blanket (crochet) – I have so many squares (but not enough). I’ve lost some and I’m trying to keep to a certain number of each colour combination and it’s all just a bit too much effort right now.

Lagoon scarf – I’m debating whether to frog this or not, as I’m not sure I like how the colours are going. I think a lengthwise stripe would look better. What do you think?

Kaleidoscope cardigan – I’ve been knitting this for ages. It’s not difficult or even that slow at knitting up. I’ve just stopped for some reason.

Probably others I’ve forgotten.

I’ve joined a knitting group recently, which helps me do some of the more boring things I don’t like to do when nothing else is going on. That helps. But still, even with the best intentions, and telling myself ‘I won’t start anything else until I’ve finished something’, I end up in this predicament. I love the satisfaction of finishing a project. And I know I can, as I’ve finished many pairs of socks, a few shawls and various other things. Yet right now, I’m really getting the urge to start a new pair of socks. Plus I should be thinking about Christmas presents.

How do you keep the motivation to finish projects, or do you just go with what your instincts say and start as many projects as you have needles and yarn for?